Oat Cookies with Coconut Milk Chocolate Ganache

I always have a problem getting rid of leftover baking ingredients. My favourite thing to bake on whim when I need to use up leftover ingredients is cookies. They're so easy and quick and well, everyone loves cookies. Especially when there's chocolate involved. I had a ton of leftover coconut milk from my sticky rice and kaya macarons and had no idea what to do with it. I started toying with the idea of making a chocolate ganache using the coconut milk instead of cream and a quick google search made me realise that it's used quite a lot with dairy-free chocolate as a vegan substitute for ganache. Very interesting...Not that I was wanting to make a vegan recipe, but I was intrigued to see what a coconut milk ganache would look and taste like.

I decided to use up more of my leftover ingredients by making some delicious golden oat biscuits to be sandwiched with the coconut milk chocolate ganache. These biscuits have a light crunch, they're not too sweet and they are completely moreish. They biscuits are a bit less oaty and crunchy than Anzac biscuits but more coconutty, and quite similar in flavour to Digestive biscuits, with a bit of lovely malt flavour. They taste pretty good on their own, but they are completely addictive with the chocolate ganache.

The ganache turned out really beautifully, I found it really interesting to substitute hot cream for hot coconut milk in the recipe. The ganache was luscious and shiny, and set really well in the fridge once I had sandwiched it in the biscuits. The ganache itself tasted pretty similar to a normal ganache, maybe a tiny bit richer and only the teeny tiniest hint of coconut. I will definitely be keeping a few cans of coconut milk around the house in case I ever run out of cream and need to make emergency chocolate ganache. You'd be surprised how often I need to make emergency chocolate ganache. It can be such a pain to keep fresh cream in the fridge all the time, I always end up throwing out a lot of expired leftover cream.

I always love the combination of oat biscuits with chocolate filling. One of my favourite Arnott's biscuits is the Kingston, which is quite similar to this. I remember wanting to try baking Kingston-like biscuits ever seeing Julia's delicious-looking version. And while my biscuits look quite similar to Kingstons, they have a very unique, memorable flavour. They're just the kind of biscuits that I can polish off a plate of with a giant mug of tea on a sunny afternoon. And with the gorgeous warm weather we've been having in Sydney, these are the perfect treat to make at the moment.

Oat Biscuits with Coconut Milk Chocolate Ganache
(adapted from this Taste recipe, makes about 18 sandwiched cookies)
2/3 cup (about 140g) brown sugar
100g unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1/3 cup malted milk powder (I used Horlicks)
1 1/4 cups plain flour (about 180g), sifted
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup dessicated coconut

For the ganache:
1/2 cup (125ml) full-fat coconut milk
150g dark chocolate, chopped up into small pieces

Preheat oven to 160°C and line two baking trays with baking paper. Place sugar and butter in a bowl, and beat with electric beaters on high until light and creamy. Add egg and continue beating until well combined. Mix together milk powder, plain flour, baking powder, rolled oats and coconut in a separate bowl. Gradually add dry mixture with the mixer on low, beat until well combined.

Roll heaped teaspoon of dough into balls and press flat on prepared trays, leaving a couple cm for spreading. I managed to fit about 15 on each tray. Cover tray with plastic wrap. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes (I skipped this step but had to slightly flatten my cookies halfway through baking with a spatala). Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely.

Prepare the ganache while the cookies cool; place chopped chocolate in a medium sized bowl. Heat coconut milk gradually on a medium-low heat in a small saucepan until the mixture just starts to bubble and steam, about 5-10 mins. Remove from the heat and pour hot coconut milk over the chocolate. Leave to sit for 5 minutes while the chocolate melts. Using a whisk, mix together until all the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Place in the fridge until the mixture starts to thicken up, about 15 minutes. Don't leave it for too long or the ganache will set hard and you will have to melt it over a saucepan of boiling water. Spoon or pipe ganache on to biscuits and sandwich together. Leave to set for about 15 minutes. Can be stored in an airtight container for several days but best eaten on the day they are baked as the biscuits will get soggier over time.